last day in Spain

Friday of last week was our last day in Barca. Peggy and I spent it shopping for gifts for friends and family and just relaxing as we walked the pretty cobblestone streets.

We stopped for wine or sangria each and every time either of us needed to use the WC, which was often since we were drinking so much wine and sangria!

For dinner we finally had the “tapa toothpick” experience we had heard so much about.

This is a tapas bar where you choose your tapas from a counter…

…and then are charged by the number of toothpicks left on your plate at the end of your meal.

We returned to the apartment earlier than we had any night other night since the first day we arrived. That first night, we were in bed by 7:30 PM. This last night we packed and were in bed by 10:00 PM.  A far cry from the 1:00 AM or later nights we’d been doing for the last 10 days.

Instead of the bus/metro/airport excursion of that first day, we took a cab. Even at $25 euro each, it was totally worth it to not heave heavy suitcases up and down the metro stairs over and over again!

Our 9-hour flight from Barca to Philly wasn’t all that difficult. I watched four movies; Delivery Man, Last Vegas, Rush, and The Book Thief.  As I type this, I am sitting on the next and final leg of the trip home, 25 minutes into the flight. It is noon Arizona time, already 8 PM Barca time.  The goal is to stay awake for the next 5 hours of this long 5 1/2 hour flight.  Get home and fall into bed and pray to not be too jet-lagged in the week to come. Especially because the morning after I get home, we have company arriving on a 6:45 AM flight!

Yep, I come home to family from Illinois for the next 5 days! I am not complaining. Not at all! I am so happy to have them. Dave’s brother, Tom, and sister-in-law, Beth, haven’t been to Arizona since 1997. We’ve begged them to visit and they finally are, so I am thrilled to entertain them. I’ll update you tomorrow on if I made it through a week of house guests if I suffered from jet lag or not and how it all went.

Thank you for indulging me during this journey to Spain and back!